Villages and Castles on the North Kent Coast

This is a map showing villages and marshland on the north Kent coast, dating from the mid 16th century. As is generally the case with maps of small localities from this period, it is concerned with ownership and boundaries of land. It records the rights of five adjacent proprietors in the marshlands of Kent, north of Rochester. It is a hybrid of pictorial and diagrammatic styles. The sections of marsh land are shown as a row of rectangles with each manor house at the top and the River Thames at the foot, populated by boats and fishes. There is no consistent scale. The map was probably drawn to serve a particular purpose. It was not common practice to own a map of your property for general records until much later.